Kinghorn: from home loans to doughnuts

The notoriously private Sydney businessman - and one of Australia's richest - reportedly began his career in the 1960s as a chartered accountant before joining Australian investment bank Delfin Finance Corporation, where he become chief executive.

In the late 1970s he set up Allco Finance Group, which specialised in leases for aircraft, shipping, mining and transport equipment.

He sold down his stake in Allco and set up Registered Australian Mortgage Securities (RAMS) in 1991.

* RAMS

Launched in 1995, taking on the big banks in the residential mortgage market.

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After failing to sell RAMS for $1b in 2006, Kinghorn floated it on the Australia stock market a year later, a move which reaped him $650m.

Within three weeks of its July 2007 stock market debut, Rams' shares collapsed as the global financial crisis hit and credit markets froze, prompting The New York Times to dub the float "maybe the worst initial public offering of the decade".

Rams was sold to Westpac in October 2007 at a fire-sale price of $140m, which Kinghorn described as a "bitter pill".

* BOUNCE BACK TO PROFIT

Rams' mortgage book was not part of the sale and was taken on by Kinghorn's company RHG Ltd. As credit markets improved, RHG became profitable.

By 2010, Kinghorn's fortune was estimated at $375m, with his stake in RHG worth $25m. He tried selling but failed to find a buyer.

A year later he put a share buyback and privatisation plan on the table, which investors revolted against as they thought the offer was too low. Kinghorn sold his 11pct stake in May 2011 for $44m and stepped down as chairman six months later.

* OTHER BUSINESS INTERESTS

Most of Kinghorn's business interests have related to real estate, but among the others he has dabbled in was the Krispy Kreme doughnut franchise which arrived in Australia in 2003 but fell into administration seven years later.

In 2009 Kinghorn was also part of a syndicate that bought real estate franchise LJ Hooker from Suncorp for $67m. He reportedly sold his 20pct stake in exchange for taking of LJ Hooker's home loans subsidiary in 2015.

* KALOMO PACIFIC LEASING and KALOMO CORPORATION

The companies, which are the subject of the AFP's allegations against Kinghorn, were registered in Jersey but were struck off the Channel Island's register of companies and dissolved in October 2008.

* CHARITIES

Kinghorn and his wife Jill set up the Kinghorn Foundation in 2006.

He gave away half his wealth to the foundation after the Rams stock market listing, tipping $300m into the foundation to distribute to projects focused on medical research, education, and alleviating poverty. The foundation donated $25m to the Sydney-based Garvan Institute in 2009 to set up the Kinghorn Cancer Centre.